Bob Geldof: The Pictures That Changed My Life

"Sometime in the last days of October 1984, I turned on the television and saw something that was to change my life."

"I was confronted by something so horrendous, I was wrenched violently from the complacency of another rather dispiriting day and pinioned, unable to turn away from the misery of another world inhabited by people only recognisable as humans by their magnificent dignity."

"I do not know why Mo Amin’s pictures did this to me. God knows, if you watch an average night’s news, you are confronted with enough scenes of horror to seriously question man’s sanity."

"But the tube [the television] also has the ability to reduce, to shrink events and make them bearable in the context of your living room. Ultimately, one becomes immune, if not anaesthetised."

"But the pitiless, unrelenting gaze of this camera was different. Somehow, this was not objective journalism but confrontation. There was a dare here: 'I dare you to do nothing’."

"Mo Amin had succeeded above all else in showing you his own disgust and shame and anger and making it yours also."

"It is certainly true that were it not for that now historic broadcast, millions would be dead. There would have been no Band, Live, or Sport Aid, no mass outpouring of humanity’s compassion."

"In that brief, shocking but glorious moment, Amin had transcended the role of journalist-cameraman and perhaps unwittingly become the visual interpreter of man’s stinking conscience."

"He had always been amongst that breed considered extraordinary. He continues to upset us with his unrelenting and passionate lens. He is without question an extraordinary man."

"I thank God that I was home that autumn evening. I thank God I was watching that channel, and I thank God that Mo Amin sickened and shamed me. Long may he do so."